by Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

by Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

It's been a surprisingly good fall so far for NBC, so good that you wonder why the network would risk its reputation by putting this unpleasant under-performer back on the air. It was a bad enough idea when NBC planned to dump it on Friday, but slotting it here, opposite one of TV's best sitcoms - ABC's The Middle - is like adding insult to injury. And to compound the insult, tonight's guest is Jane Kaczmarek, who had a very funny guest turn just last week on that self-same Middle. She would have been better off staying there, and so would you.

ArrowCW, 8 ET/PT

A bow, an arrow and a well-toned star do not a TV series make. This one, at least, could also use a sensible plot, which means dropping Arrow's lazy reliance on Oliver's (Stephen Amell) inexplicable computer skills and power of deductive reasoning. (Hint: Even Sherlock Holmes could not have identified a suspect from a high school class ring alone.) The show is in danger of squandering the possibilities that seemed so apparent in the pilot - and wasting the talents of Susanna Thompson, who lifts it to another level whenever she's on screen. Let's focus on making those brighter moments the rule rather than the exception.

Law & Order: SVUNBC, 9 ET/PT

Two guests, Almost Famous' Bijou Phillips and TV favorite Scott Bakula, drop by NBC's remaining L&O outlet. She's a woman involved in a custody dispute; he's a famous legal expert she says is the baby's father.